In a final regulation issued Wednesday, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) assumed that under Obamacare the cheapest health insurance plan available in 2016 for a family will cost $20,000 for the year.

Under Obamacare, Americans will be required to buy health insurance or pay a penalty to the IRS.

The IRS's assumption that the cheapest plan for a family will cost $20,000 per year is found in examples the IRS gives to help people understand how to calculate the penalty they will need to pay the government if they do not buy a mandated health plan.

If these policies are going to cost that much, I can see millions saying blank this,and pay the penalty instead.

But if millions decide not to be insured, won’t that defeat the promise of Obamacare, that everyone will have health insurance???

Also, little noted in last year’s Supreme Court decision, was that states can opt out of the Medicaid expansion. There too, we could still see many millions uninsured. Add in the illegal aliens, whom Obama assured us were not to be covered by Obamacare, and you will still see tens of millions of uninsured clogging emergency rooms, with the rest of us holding the bag.

Our family plan, typical 80/20. med, eyes, dental, script card, and 100 deduct costs 20,000. I bet (if this is true) the govt plan won’t be nearly as good as any private plan. Remember when they were saying $999/person/year; ya right.

If anyone thinks people will be paying this much, stand on your head.
It’s supposed to be this high so people can’t pay it and they’ll get the “free” version once the government can rescue the underclasses from the oppressive 0.01% of the “rich” that are hoarding all the healthcare.

7
posted on 02/01/2013 11:50:21 AM PST
by newnhdad
(Our new motto: USA, it was fun while it lasted.)

Remember the estimates of 30 million, 37 million, and then maybe 40 million "without healthcare insurance?" Remember that even after implemented, Obamacare still admitted that there would still be about 30 million or so without healthcare coverage? Where in the hell are all these increases going? To cover 10 million new patients? Even a conservative estimate would put the jump at about 10 times what an average family is paying today!

Wouldn't it have been much easier and cheaper to pass around the proverbial hat to just pay the insurance of these 10 million new patients? There will be riots...

10
posted on 02/01/2013 11:54:42 AM PST
by Lou L
(Health "insurance" is NOT the same as health "care")

“I bet (if this is true) the govt plan wont be nearly as good as any private plan.”

You are absolutely right. The IRS estimates of $20,000 a year were made for the BRONZE plan. This is the worst of the four plans that will be permissible under Obamacare. This plan pays about 60% of medical costs. One significant surgery that requires 4 days in the hospital will have most families considering bankruptcy under the BRONZE plan.

This will be the catalyst for several disruptions to the economy that will result in tremendous inflation over the next several years and an effort on the part of employers to reduce the number of employees covered by the law.

Wages will have to skyrocket in order for working people to pay the outrageous insurance premiums or the alternate fines.

Companies will have to increase prices to cover the cost of higher wages as well as the costs of their contributions.

And, at the same time, companies will seek every possible way to reduce employment, lessening their healthcare related costs. They will automate, downsize, sub-contract, move out of the USA, etc.

Thanks to Obama, within five years American prosperity will be a vague memory.

Well, there is that, of course. But, if someone is sick, they don't (understandably) ask what their cost options are. They ask for the best possible care. If you want the best house, or the best car, you are constrained by the cold realities of the marketplace. But with health care, you ask for the best, regardless of your economic status, largely because there is someone else who will foot the bill. We get a new drug, or a new technology, and everybody wants it. Again, I get that, but the system becomes overburdened by it.

This is why I hate this 'health care is a right' nonsense. Suppose they come up with a treatment for, I dunno, diabetes. It's a miracle treatment, but it costs a billion dollars a patient. But, health care is a right, so someone HAS to pay for it, even if it bankrupts your economy. The absence of market forces will do these sorts of things.

I had a simple MRI on my foot 6 mos ago. 3,000 bucks. BC/BS paid 400. I paid 250 co-pay. If I hadn’t had insurance then they would have charged me 3,000. If I could get the same deal that the insurance co gets I wouldn’t need insurance.

If medical and hospital accountants ran the bus company, it would cost 10 Grand to cross town. At one point there were so many competing MRI units in my town, that they were doing no-prescription walk-ins for $300!

At the same time, in took 18 months to get one in Canada. There must be some sort of instructional value to this.

If the demand is artificially stimulated by free medical care, or if the supply is artificially limited by regulation or collusion, the Law of Supply and Demand gets a bit warped in the process.

The co-pay of $250-300 is in many cases, the realistic value of the service! The physician-owned MRI units charge the insco $4500, or whatever they can get away with. In their defence, such as it is, when the Gonzalez brothers ... all 18 of them...get their MRIs for "free," the MRI company graciously waives the co-pay and probably only bills the funding agency a low, low $2800 each!

I claim that the medical accounting theory is all screwed up ... like oil depletion allowances... entertainment business practices ... municipal road contracts, etc. The main thing screwing it up is that millions receive medical services for free, while thousands pay for insurance and make co-payments. That's hardly "capitalism" in action.

Yea. I talked to my Dad about this very thing last night. He is a 50 year practicing pediatrician. Semi-retired now, you want to get him pissed start talking about regulations, medicaid, insurance etc. He doesn’t even like to think about it. Says he pays office employees to handle that, he just can’t deal with it. At the end of the day they’ll be a stack of papers on his desk and he just signs.

His biggest thing is Doctors who won’t take Medicaid. Probably 60% of his practice is medicaid. He needs to refer a patient many times he can’t cause he can’t find a specialist who will see them.

Growing up, kids in school thought we were “rich”. Far from it. At one time he was the only pediatrician in 3 counties who took Medicaid. Every medicaid patient was a net loser money wise. When you factor in all the no pays then it was a balancing act just to pay the bills. It’s not the kids fault. What’s he supposed to do, tell a sick 6 yo he can’t see them?

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